The Palestinian president can tell his skeptical public that the decision to resume peace negotiations was made from a position of Palestinian strength - not weakness.

The "yes" from Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry was expected. For several weeks, the assumption has been that, despite widespread opposition among the Palestinian public and the Palestine...

ALREADY be filing suits at The Hague. However, the US "talks"
are merely a good cop, bad cop routine. The US is on the side of the EU
sanctions. The Palestinians WILL get their state back. However this
political kibuki will add years to the process.

Amira Hass, with Noam Chomsky and Norman Finkelstein already propagated
the myth that the purpose of the Oslo agreement was to turn the PLO into
collaborators by forcing it to fight terrorism on behalf of Israel while
Israel would keep expanding the settlements and turn the West Bank into
a Bantustan. We know it was not true. It is true that the Israeli left
did not have the strength to curtail settlement activies, but
ultimately, Barak ended up by accepting the Clinton parameters. Now,
Hass tries to spread once again the myth that Palestinian moderates are
merely collaborators who want to enrich themselves and that the Israeli
public opinion will continue to support the occupation as long as there
won't be external pressures. It's a lie. Every single opinion poll
conducted over the least decade shows that a majority of Israelis are in
favor of the Clinton parameters. The reason they vote Likud is because
they fear that if the IDF pulls out of the West Bank, Hamas will use
this territory to fire rockets on Israel, since its goal is not the
liberation of the West Bank, but rather the destruction of Israel. Of
course, you cannot except Hass to acknowledge this fact. To her eyes any
explanation that does not put full responsability on Israel's shoulders
should be ignored. She flaunts of being the daughter of communist
militants. We'll, she perpetuates their legacy of stalinism!

You don't need to live in the West Bank to know that Ehud Barak
approvedthe Clinton parameters and that most Israelis support them as
well.by the way, anyone who has followed the 1996 and the 2001 election
in Israel, knows that the left was defeated because of Hamas's terrorist
attacks. Once again, Hanas doesn't want to liberate the West Bank, it
wants to destroy Israel. I guess anyone living in the West Bank knows
it, right, Rami?!

Moderate Abbas is not of Israeli style. The moderate leader on the
Palestinian side is largely left alone. In fact, Israel will never again
get a negotiating Partner like Abbas. Let's face it.....Bibbi, Lieberman
and Barak don't want peace, they want Land and War. They know nothing
about Peace making.

I pray to all deities that this conflict will be settled...and that
Israel does not find a "New Excuse" a la "No
Partner". We, Muslims in the West along Palestinians and Jews are
the victims of this conflict which has jailed us for years. I remind
Jews, Palestinians and Arabs of a very common German saying "When 2
quarrel, the third enjoys it!". So be smart, stop hating and killig
each other and carry on with your lives.

Well, Germany already backpedalled from the decision of the EU regarding
funding of projects in the 'occupied' territories (which Haaretz staff
still celebrates so they didn't notice it) but another point comes to
the forefront regarding the negotiations: The 'Palestinians'' are enough
comfortable under 'occupation' that they feel free to play a tactical
game with the peace negotiations notwithstanding the 'opression',
'humiliation', 'land teft' and other wicewdnesses of the 'occupier' .
Israel should accelerate the policy of settlements if for no other
reason than to show that time is not working for the Arabs.

Because of intense Zionist intimidation of US politicians, the US was
never able to mount this sort of boycott of Israeli settlements.
Hopefully, the tide has now turned and the new EU guidelines will be
adopted all over the world. These guidelines are just the beginning of a
new era of sanctions against Israel geared towards forcing them to
return to the 67 borders and give the Palestinians their own state. The
goal of a greater Israel was simply never realistic in today's world.
The lengthy, bizarre and sad game is over.

After a while the world gets tired of the games and the deceit. Saying
one thing and doing another. The US is much to be blamed for protecting
and aiding Israel. If they had shown the way earlier like the EU, there
might have been peace by now.

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